KL Rahul - The missing Jigsaw piece in India’s Puzzle?
Kannaur Lokesh Rahul, the only other Indian batter in T20i history to score two centuries, is seeing questions being raised over his lack of form. We don’t often see fingers being raised on a batter who averages 38.39 in 64 innings and who strikes at 139.43, but such is the state of Indian cricket and the healthy competition for the opener spot. While the rest of India’s top four batters have now scored at least 30 runs in two innings cumulatively, KL has been the only let down in India’s World Cup campaign so far with 13 runs in two innings.
Is Rahul’s poor show a sudden downfall? Or have the selectors been ignoring the signs for too long?
KL Rahul's performance has been disappointing, to say the least, in the on-going T20 World Cup , with 13 runs in two innings of 20 deliveries with a bamboozling 65% dot-ball ratio. Though two games should not be enough to raise concerns about KL's form, it is about the entire 2021 and 2022 seasons combined. Rahul used to average about 50.95 between 2016 and 2020, when he accumulated a mammoth 1542 runs effortlessly at a staggering average of 50.95 and scored both his T20I centuries in the said period. The downfall of KL started in 2021. And the numbers for Rahul have declined faster than Europe’s GDP.
In the last two years, KL has struggled for runs in all three formats, not just T20I. And as they say, the numbers don’t lie either. KL has only scored 608 runs in 23 innings at a below-par average of 28.95 in the last two years. There has been a drop of almost 22% in Rahul’s average in the first five years compared to the last two years. With respect to the strike rate, well, the picture isn’t good there either. Rahul used to strike at an average strike rate of 146.64 between 2016 and 2020 and the strike rate has slowed down more than 2000 bps as he now strikes at just 127.44 in the past 2 years.
KL Rahul and the law of diminishing returns on big stages.
Like the law of diminishing returns, the higher the pressure of big matches, the lower the score of KL Rahul under pressure situations. KL Rahul has been looked at as the stand-in skipper in tests and ODIs in the absence of Rohit Sharma due to his performances at a broader level. However, a captain, a leader, needs to step up when others around him fail. But that has not been the case with KL. Rahul has played in three world cups so far: two T20 (one of which is still ongoing) and one 50-over cricket World Cup.
Upon deep diving into KL’s contribution on big stages, when the pressure is off the roofs or in matches against tougher opposition, KL has succumbed and succumbed big time against quality opposition. In the 2019 ODI World Cup, KL scored 361 runs at an average of 45.13. While the healthy average might persuade us to stop looking into the bigger picture, not everything is as good with Rahul as the average suggests. 60% of the total 361 runs came against Sri Lanka (111), Afghanistan (30) and Bangladesh (77). On the other hand, his struggles were evident against established teams, as just 40% of the runs came against big teams like South Africa (26), Australia (11), Pakistan (57), and West Indies (48). To top that up, he had a critical failure against New Zealand in the semi-finals, where he managed to score just 1 run.
In the T20i World Cup, KL has featured, inclusive of the ongoing T20 World Cup down under. KL averages 48.50 in the 2021 edition and 6.50 in the 2022 edition. Similar to the ODI World Cup, the averages of KL in the 2021 T20 World Cup can be deceptive too. Of the total 194 runs scored by KL in five innings, 173 (89.2%) of those came against Afghanistan (69), Scotland (50) and Namibia (54) while just a cumulative of 21 runs came against Pakistan (3) and New Zealand (18). With respect to the 2022 edition, the runs have dried up even against the likes of the Netherlands, where Rahul scored just 9 runs off 12 deliveries.
So, long story short, deciphering the KL Rahul law of diminishing returns against bigger teams only leads us to the conclusion that Rahul goes under a shell against tough teams. The question that then arises is, is Rahul given that kind of a role? Is he curbing his natural stroke-making ability against better teams, which he showcases against below-par teams? It's not that only KL has been struggling in pressure situations; other Indian batters too are struggling. But it's the pattern of KL's form which suddenly goes from WoW to What? against tough teams. Well, all in all, for the betterment of India, not just the Indian supporters but cricket lovers across the globe would want a free-flowing, natural-striking Rahul to be on the field and leave the baggage of carrying the team behind, which he does for his franchise teams in the IPL.
If KL Rahul too fires for India, then on any given day, India can post 200+ totals and can even chase them with ease given the kind of power hitters India has down the batting order. It would be fascinating to see how KL performs in the rest of the tournament with the only tough match lined up against South Africa and the semi-finals, if at all, India qualifies, which could test the waters for Rahul. While the rest of the matches in the Super-12 are against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, we all know Rahul can score a hundred off 50 deliveries, even with one leg.